April
| Published: 31st March 2008 20:16 |
Flavours are becoming fresher and brighter in April, allowing your cooking to make that all important change to spring, a time to take a fresh look at your cooking and give it a little makeover. I love to have warm salads at this time of year, more substantial than a summer salad but lighter than the winter cooking we have left behind. Leafy young spinach and watercress take over from hardy winter brassicas. Rosemary provides a wonderful perfume to many dishes, giving depth of flavour to roasts and sauces. The first crop of Jersey Royal potatoes is also here, with their wonderfully delicate earthy flavour and perfectly balanced, crumbly yet creamy texture. April also sees the end of the (male) brown crab season, so buy one now or you'll be waiting until July for the females to come into season. Wood pigeon is one of the few game birds in season, and makes a particularly good warm salad. At the end of April you may be lucky enough to get the very first of the Asparagus.
Rosemary
Best used fresh, sprigs are often used to flavour meats, especially lamb, during roasting. It's also good with poultry, turkey, sausages, and fish, especially red mullet and snapper. Try roasting root vegetables with whole garlic cloves and fresh rosemary sprigs. Potatoes and rosemary are a classic pairing; boil your potatoes in their skins until tender, in a small saucepan heat a couple of tablespoons of olive oil, a garlic clove and a sprig of fresh rosemary, pour the infused oil over your very lightly crushed potatoes. Rosemary also works with sweet foods; I put a few sprigs in with some sugar and then use for a hint of rosemary flavour in cakes and fruit pies.
Try our traditional Italian Foccacia
Or roasted Rosemary-Studded Leg of Lamb
Spinach
The best way to cook spinach down is in olive oil or a little butter, rather than plunging the leaves in boiling water as this gives an over-cooked, soggy result. If you want to leave out the fat, place the rinsed spinach into a hot pan, cover and cook for 1-2 minutes until the spinach has wilted. Try adding a few toasted pine nuts and a sprinkling of raisins for a sweet, nutty contrast to the leaves. Versatile and tasty, spinach combines well with other ingredients including cream and cheese and eggs. Great in pasta dishes, flans and stuffing, spinach is also popular in Greek-style pies made with filo pastry; try combining it with Feta cheese. I use spinach at this time of year as a salad leaf; it is young, sweet and tender. As with all fruit and vegetables, the more you do to them the more of their natural goodness they lose.
Try Baked Feta, Spinach and Hazelnut Filo Parcels
Sea Trout
Sea trout can be used in any way you would use fresh salmon: braised, fried, grilled or poached. When absolutely fresh, it is suitable for sashimi and sushi, or ceviche-style dishes from South America, where the fish is marinated in citrus to ‘cook' it. Try poaching whole fillets and serving them with a light butter or cream sauce, or if we have a good day barbeque a whole fish wrapped in foil and then in damp newspaper and serve with a spicy salsa. Don't be afraid to add spicy sauces: sea trout is a robust fish and can take flavour, even spicy tandoori sea trout is good.
Try our Baked Sea Trout in a Herb Salt Crust
Or Crispy Sea trout with a salad of Jersey Royal New Potatoes
Jersey Royals
Waxy rather than floury in texture, Jersey Royals hold their shape well when cooked and have a subtle and delicate taste, making them ideal for salads. When cooking, add a sprig of mint to lightly salted boiling water to compliment the flavour of the potatoes. If you can, buy unwashed new potatoes as they have a better flavour then pre-washed potatoes. You can easily remove the thin papery skins by scraping with a blunt knife.
Try our New potato, goat's cheese and bacon salad
Watercress
During the Industrial Revolution, freshly cut watercress and bread was a typical breakfast for workers. Particularly high in iron, watercress is now becoming more fashionable among women, who tend to eat little or no red meat. Watercress sandwiches perhaps with the addition of eggs, prawns or salmon are a personal favourite. Watercress soup, made with potatoes, is a wonderful summer soup that can be eaten hot or chilled. In salads its peppery flavour makes a wonderful contrast to rich and creamy ingredients such as potatoes, bacon, goats cheese, smoked mackerel or blue cheese. Watercress is great with grilled steak or lamb, its mustardy taste helping to cut through the fattiness of the meat. You can also treat it like a herb, adding it finely chopped to butter sauces, crème fraîche or mayonnaise. (Watercress is grown locally in Hampshire).
Try an early summer Beef Salad with Pink Grapefruit and Watercress
Or Smoked Mackerel Pate Parcels
Wood Pigeon
Pigeon is one of the more delicate game birds. It has a rich, meaty taste that can either be played up and intensified by braising with red wine, bacon and juniper berries or contrasted by serving pan-fried breasts with a salad and citrus vinaigrette. The only thing you have to remember is that pigeon should either be cooked quickly and served pink, or should be cooked slowly; anywhere in the middle and you'll get a very tough bird.
See our Wood Pigeon salad with redcurrant vinaigrette
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